Logan

Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart have saved their best for last. Logan, the latest addition to the X-Men cinema franchise, is hands down their best film to date.

The third spinoff focusing on fan-favourite Wolverine, Logan’s MA15+ rating allowed director James Mangold to make a movie that more accurately portrayed the comic book version of the beloved anti-hero, and it paid dividends.

Logan is gripping, gritty, and unrelentingly brutal, without ever feeling overdone or unrealistic given the context.

While Logan is significantly more gruesome than its M-rated predecessors, Mangold perfectly offsets the increased violence with an increased focus on Logan’s (Hugh Jackman) inner turmoil over the acts he’s committed.

Following a trend set by recent critically-acclaimed films Lion (2016) and Manchester by the Sea (2016), Logan features a child actor whose phenomenal performance is critical to the movie’s success.

Laura (Dafne Keen) holds her own alongside the fierce Wolverine, and fans of the X-Men franchise will be eager to see more of her in future.

A masterful interweaving of comedy, drama, and action, Logan earns all of its physical and emotional payoffs.

Whether with a fatal swipe of Logan’s trademark claws or through the painful loss of a cherished friend, Logan will keep audiences on an emotional roller coaster throughout, and the longest of the three Wolverine films will feel as though it’s over in a flash.